The Boys Season 1 Episode 8

Flavor of television series

The Boys
Season one
Promotional poster
Starring	Karl Urban Jack Quaid Antony Starr Erin Moriarty Dominique McElligott Jessie T. Conductor Laz Alonso Chace Crawford Tomer Kapon Karen Fukuhara Nathan Mitchell Elisabeth Shue
State of origin	United States
No. of episodes	8
Release
Original network	Amazon Prime Video
Original release	July 26, 2019 (2019-07-26)
Season chronology
Next → Flavour ii
Listing of episodes

The first season of the American superhero television series
The Boys, the kickoff series in the franchise based on the comic book series of the same proper noun written by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, was developed for idiot box by American writer and television producer Eric Kripke. The season was produced by Sony Pictures Goggle box in association with Point Greyness Pictures, Original Film, Kripke Enterprises, Kickstart Entertainment and KFL Nightsky Productions.

The outset season of the series stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Kapon, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, and Elisabeth Shue. The story takes place in a universe where nigh of the superpowered individuals are recognized as superheroes, but in reality abuse their powers for personal proceeds, information the public is kept unaware of. The series follows the eponymous Boys (led by Billy Butcher), a grouping of vigilantes looking to bring downwardly Vought International and expose its corrupt superheroes. When his girlfriend is accidentally killed by A-Train, Hughie Campbell joins the Boys to get revenge against the Vii. Meanwhile, Annie January is forced to face up the truth about those she admires, after she joins the Seven, led by Homelander. The Boys attempt to stop Vought from receiving regime support for superheroes by uncovering the company'southward secrets. When Hughie and Annie brainstorm a romantic relationship, the conflict is muddled despite the ii of them initially being unaware of each other's affiliations.

All eight episodes of the season were released on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video on July 26, 2019, alluring a high viewership, making the prove one of the most successful originals ever released by Prime number Video at the moment. It received largely positive reviews from critics and audiences, with loftier praise for its social commentary, story, black humor, faithfulness to the comics, screenplay and the performances of Urban and Starr. On July 19, 2019, the series was renewed for a 2nd season.^[1]

Episodes

[edit]

Cast and characters

[edit]

Billy Zane, Jimmy Fallon, Mike Massaro, Seth Rogen, and Tara Reid made cameo appearances as themselves, with Zane appearing in a Popclaw fictional film within the series and at a comic convention in the episodes "Goof for the Soul" and "The Innocents" respectively, Fallon interviewing Translucent during
his talk bear witness
in the episode "Cherry", and Massaro portraying an ESPN interviewer for the episodes Red and "Get Some", while Rogen and Reid appeared equally themselves in interviews for the episode "The Innocents".

Product

[edit]

Evolution

[edit]

Between 2008 and 2016, information technology was originally planned to make a film adaptation of
The Boys
having been in various stages of development. Columbia Pictures was initially the studio in charge to bring the adaptation with a budget of $100 meg and Adam McKay as the manager. Withal the project was abandoned due to a serial of creatives differences between the studio and McKay. Yet the production of the picture was revived by Paramount Pictures, having managed to get the rights of the project in Baronial 2012,^{[17]
[18]
[xix]}
only and so on April 6, 2016, it was announced that Cinemax would be developing a television series adaptation of the comic book instead, cancelling the original plans for a moving picture adaptation. Eric Kripke, Evan Goldberg, and Seth Rogen were approached then recruited during the production of the series
Preacher, with Kripke serving as the showrunner of the series and Goldberg and Rogen as directors.^[20]
Kripke, Rogen and Robertson were also selected as executive producer. Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson were selected to serve as co-executive producers. The confirmed production companies to be involved with the serial were Point Greyness Pictures, Original Pic, and Sony Pictures Television.^[17]

However, on November 8, 2017, Amazon Prime Video managed to get the rights of
The Boys
and started the production of the get-go season consisting of 8 episodes, with the production expected to brainstorm at the spring of 2018 for a planned release at 2019. At the fourth dimension, Amazon was failing to become hits with its originals which led them to make several deals with auspices from other successful series hoping to make the side by side big genre drama hit show similar
Game of Thrones,
The Walking Dead
and
Stranger Things.^[21]
The series was confirmed to exist at evolution for several months preceding the series club announcement and it was likewise confirmed that the creative squad that were hired for the previous adaptations were notwithstanding fastened to the serial.^{[22]
[23]
[24]}
On Apr 30, 2018, Dan Trachtenberg replaced Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg equally the directors of the evidence.^[25]
Kripke, Goldberg, Rogen, Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty, Ori Marmur, James Weaver, Ken Levin, and Jason Netter were confirmed to serve as the executive producers for the series. Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson were recruited to serve as the co-executive producers.^[17]

Writing

[edit]

The Boys
takes identify in a universe where the superheroes are interpreted as corrupt celebrities who abuse their powers. Kripke wanted to explore how these heroes would be portrayed in real life, leading to several discussions of how to deconstruct the old myth of superheroes. He has admitted to being a fan of Curiosity, merely believes that the old superhero myth portrayed in the comics and films would non happen in the real earth every bit he considers that the people are selfish, believing that a person won't exercise something noble in one case it suddenly gains superpowers.^[26]
As a long time fan of the comic-book series
The Boys, Kripke began to follow every other work written by Garth Ennis during his college years. However he didn't intend to write the series exactly as the comics, feeling that it would disastrous, leading him to make some changes to the series. The writers agreed that they needed to adjust the characters to fit the story, so long as they were complex and recognizable. In guild to residual the show'southward satire and superhero tropes, Kripke explained: "We let any comedy or absurdity emerge out of the natural contradictions of putting a fantasy element in the real globe. And so when those people have to take shits and go get tacos, it just gets funny."^[twenty]

The season does not fully follow the storyline from the comics despite its faithfulness to the comic volume series, as Kripke maintained the writers disciplined with the intention of retaining the show with a sense of reality by saying: "Anything that comes out of this drug is viable, and anything that doesn't we're non allowed to do".^[27]
The show most difficult role was the moment when Starlight is sexually assaulted, due to the MeToo movement, leading to several debates and discussions of how to adjust information technology. It was originally intended that Starlight would payback during the backside-the-scenes ways inside the corporation, but information technology was eventually inverse to make her go public instead.^[26]
Another change of the sexual assail storyline is that the Deep assaults Starlight, instead of Homelander, A-Train, and Blackness Noir like the comics.^[28]
[29]
Butcher'south wife Becky storyline is also changed, as Kripke didn't wanted to apply the convention of killing off female characters to motivate the heroes and wanted to surprise the readers by keeping her alive instead of killing her after giving birth.^{[27]
[thirty]
[29]}
Some other major change for the series is the aeroplane scene, where Homelander and Queen Maeve attempts to salve the citizens from the airplane goes incorrect and the former decides to allow everyone dice. In the comics the blow already succeeded before the events of the story in September 11, where the Seven instead of only Homelander and Queen Maeve intercepted a airplane going to crash in the Twin Towers, but also goes awry when Homelander accidentally destroys the airplane which killed everyone, including a member of the squad.^[29]
[28]
This was changed to explore deeper the dynamic between Homelander and Queen Maeve, and the show taking identify in a modern 24-hour interval.^[31]

The evidence too includes characters that don't exist in the comics. Jack from Jupiter is replaced in the series with an original and more human being graphic symbol known as Translucent, although he keeps the ability of his indestructible skin. Kripke revealed that he fabricated the alter, equally he felt that the former alien-looking design was besides fantastic for the world they were creating in the series and that would mess with the mythology of the human characters being born with powers.^[32]
Oh Male parent was also replaced in the series for an original character Ezekiel who is also portrayed as a Christian themed supe but unlike the former, he is not portrayed as a pedophile but instead as a hypocritical homophobic.^[29]
[33]
Another graphic symbol introduced in the serial is Mesmer though unlike the previous ii, he is not based in any character introduced in the comics and is fully original for the show.^[29]

Casting

[edit]

On Dec 18, 2017, it was announced that Erin Moriarty has been cast in the lead role of Annie January/Starlight.^{[half dozen]}
On January 17, 2018, it was reported that Antony Starr, Dominique McElligott, Chace Crawford, Jessie Usher, and Nathan Mitchell had joined the principal cast as the Seven.^[5]
In March 2018, Laz Alonso, Jack Quaid, and Karen Fukuhara joined the bandage in series regular roles, as the members of the Boys.^[7]
[iv]
[9]
On April 5, 2018, it was confirmed that Karl Urban had been cast in the series' lead role of Baton Butcher.^[3]
On May 16, 2018, it was announced that Elisabeth Shue had been cast in the series regular role of Madelyn Stillwell.^[ten]
On June 25, 2018, Tomer Kapon confirmed that he joined the main cast in the role of Frenchie.^[8]
On Baronial 30, 2018, Jennifer Esposito revealed that she was selected for the recurring office of CIA Amanuensis Susan Raynor.^[fourteen]

On October v, 2018, it was announced during the annual New York Comic Con that Simon Pegg had been cast in the role of Hughie'southward male parent.^{[eleven]
[12]}
According to the creative person Robertson, Hughie was drawn in the comics to resemble Pegg after he saw Pegg in the sitcom
Spaced, but Pegg thought he was too old to play the role of Hughie in the TV series.^[34]
Alex Hassell also made an appearance in the series as a guest actor, appearing as Translucent.^[xiii]
Giancarlo Esposito made a guest advent in the flavour finale as Vought International CEO, Stan Edgar.^[15]
Haley Joel Osment as well joined the cast in a recurring function, equally the retired superhero Mesmer.^[16]

During the auditions, Starr and Usher admitted not being optimistic on getting their roles initially. Starr believed that he wasn't the human they were seeking and was convinced that he would never get his role. Starr only filmed a self record to "spite" his representants, just managed to be cast in the function and decided to finally read the script. Usher believed that his own audition wasn't convincing and when he did it for the second time, he still wasn't convinced only somewhen admitted being shocked at having managed to get the part. On the other side Moriarty, Urban and Quaid were more than optimistic about beingness cast at their respective roles. Urban considered the graphic symbol fun and that would be stupid to turn it down, while Moriarty get through several screen tests for an hr and half that impressed Kripke.^[35]
[36]

Filming

[edit]

Despite the series taking place in New York City like in the comics, the show was confirmed to being filmed in Toronto, Canada.^[37]
Kripke revealed that the show was intended to begin its filming on the spring of 2018 to release the show at the following year. The filming for the first flavour officially began on May 22, 2018, in Toronto, and was scheduled to last until September 25, 2018.^{[22]
[25]
[38]
[39]}
Nevertheless the production of the show officially ended its filming on Oct 11, 2018.^[forty]
[41]
It was likewise confirmed that the prove would be partially filmed at the cities of Mississauga and Hamilton in a few locations that include the Central Parkway Mall, the Streetsville Gas Station, Tim Hortons Field stadium, and the Fallsview Residence.^[42]

For the exterior of the Vought International company headquarters, the crew used Roy Thomson Hall, located in Toronto'southward entertainment district. The building'due south construction was digitally contradistinct and extended to become the Vii Tower. For the interior of the Tower, including some of the rooms and the modern lobby where the visitor celebrates the corporate parties, were filmed inside Roy Thomson Hall. For Times Square, the crew filmed in Yonge–Dundas Foursquare located in Toronto and proceeded to digitally alter it with CGI. A-Train's race with Shockwave was filmed at Hamilton'due south Tim Hortons Field stadium. The Lower Bay Station was used for the subway scenes, which was too used for some scenes of
The Handmaid's Tale. The crew as well filmed at the zinc-clad pavilion of the Sherbourne Common waterfront park for the funeral service for the victims of the hijacked plane. For the mansion where Dr. Jonah Vogelbaum lives, the coiffure filmed at Parkwood Manor in Oshawa, Ontario. For the scene where Annie refuses to help Hughie, the crew filmed at the Cathedral Church of St. James, located in Toronto.^[39]
[43]

Visual effects

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The Boys
featured over 1400 visual furnishings shots created by DNEG Television receiver, Framestore, Folks VFX, Mavericks VFX, Method Studios, Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies VFX, Mr. 10, Pixomondo, Rocket Science VFX, Rodeo FX, and Soho VFX.^[44]
Visual effects supervisor Stephan Fleet, revealed that the studio decided to reduce a petty amount of blood and gore for the show, with the intention of edifice a more conceivable earth, following several discussions of how to interpret the comic book series in the evidence. Fleet explains that the death of Robin was complex to shoot as they needed to observe out what a body looks like when it is atomized at 500 fps. The scene took over eight months of work to go the right look and tone for the storyline in the shot, using a Phantom camera and a giant robotic arm better known as a Bolt High-Speed Cinebot to get the correct position of the camera.^[45]
Ultimately information technology was made of full CGI due to the art management and the specified time to bring a big amount of applied claret. For Translucent's death scene, a practical bomb was used as they only required to blow upwardly a applied blood bomb within the room where it was filmed. The first episode used over 300 shots, with some sequences that accept five shots that took longer than sequences of 20.^[46]

Framestore'southward executive producer Christopher Gray revealed that the vehicle used for the opening scene of the first episode was indeed secured in the street and so destroyed for real, while Queen Maeve scenes was filmed autonomously and so added with CGI. Framestore was also in accuse of the fight sequence at the terminal episode having worked for eight weeks in club to get the appropriate research of how light travels in deadening motion. Femto-photography was used for the scene to visualize photons and let the viewers to encounter the niggling details from a quick sequence.^[47]
For the fight between Butcher and Translucent, a double actor for the latter used a gray tracking adapt to exist erased by Mr. X using it as an animation reference runway a digi-double of the Translucent character and simulate claret on him and add furnishings of him turning on and off. Urban was forced to memorize the fight due to this and had to repeat this several times. DNEG was in charge of the scene where Homelander destroys a aeroplane at the end of the first episode, where Urban was hanged on wires to represent the flight scene that was accomplished via a greenscreen shoot. The VFX team was in charge to get refined the correct kind of anamorphic lens flare for Homelander's light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation eyes with the intention of making them unique to play into the character. Soho VFX was too in accuse of the dolphin scene, revealing that a green dolphin was used to then keep to change it into a CG version of information technology. Fleet revealed that he enjoyed the experience and said: "They also came up with the idea of him flopping on the ground before the truck hits him. Those niggling details make information technology dandy."^[45]

Music

[edit]

Christopher Lennertz was confirmed to be the composer of the testify's soundtrack, having previously worked with the showrunner Kripke for other two shows which are Supernatural and Revolution.^[48]
Lennertz was hired past Kripke while the former was working for the soundtrack of the developed animated film Sausage Party, where he learned that Rogen and Goldberg where working for a show virtually corrupt superheroes.^[49]
Kripke wanted the soundtrack to be "dirt and grime of a messy garage band with the energy of British punk" in order to make a sloppy audio that would make fun of the superhero cliches. Lennertz revealed that the soundtrack combines traditional orchestra and electronics sounds in order to shatter of the comic book heroes.^[fifty]
The original soundtrack album for the first flavour which consists of l songs was released digitally through Madison Gate Records on July 26, 2019, alongside the flavor'southward release.^[51]
[52]

Marketing

[edit]

On September 26, 2018, the official poster for the series was released which resembles the cover of
The Boys Effect #i.^[53]
[54]
During the New York Comic Con at October 2018, it was released the showtime teaser trailer for the series.^[55]
Iii months later, on January 24, 2019, Seth Rogen released a teaser trailer through his Twitter account.^[56]
Steve Seigh from JoBlo have noted that the evidence offers a look into a "sick, sorry world of a superpowered CIA squad whose task information technology is to closely monitor a superhero community who've let their stature and powers go to their heads over time". He besides considered the Vii as a "Justice League-like group of super-powered individuals who after continuously being propped up on gild's pedestal, have devolved into villains who lie, drinkable, and rape their way through the day."^[57]
On June 17, 2019, individual posters for the members of the Seven begin to be released, with the tagline "Never Come across Your Heroes" which reflects of how the each member of them behave in the serial.^[58]
On April 29, 2019, the show had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival presented past AT&T, where the first episode was previewed and Kripke alongside the cast members discussed about the show to the audience.^[59]
[60]

Release

[edit]

The get-go flavor of
The Boys
was released on July 26, 2019, on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video.^[61]
[62]
On the day of its release it was confirmed that the show was released just a few hours earlier on July 25, 2019.^[63]

Reception

[edit]

Critical response

[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the get-go season holds an approval rating of 85% based on 104 reviews, with an boilerplate rating of seven.6/ten. The website'due south disquisitional consensus reads, "Though viewers' mileage may vary,
The Boys
'
fierce delights and willingness to appoint in heavy, relevant themes are sure to please those looking for a new group of antiheroes to root for."^[64]
On Metacritic, the flavour has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[65]

Christopher Lawrence of the
Las Vegas Review-Journal
wrote: "Irreverent, deliciously cynical,
The Boys
follows the greed and corruption behind the superhero industrial complex."^[66]
Mel Campbell of Screen Hub commented: "Shockingly fierce and pointedly political, this Amazon serial is an ironic simply refreshing antidote to supe franchising. ... The Boys throws our ugly cultural obsessions back in our faces."^[67]
Daniel Fienberg from
Hollywood Reporter
in a positive response commented: "I'll have to bank check in again on The Boys subsequently a few more episodes to get a sense of whether or not the encroaching cynicism topples what I find initially promising here."^[68]
Graeme Virtue from
The Guardian
gave the serial iv of five stars and wrote:"While both have an highly-seasoned innocence, it is Moriarty's maltreated but undaunted Starlight who, accordingly, feels like she is preventing the whole thing from collapsing into darkness."^[69]
Kristy Puchko at
IGN
gives the first episode a score of 7.ii/10 and appreciates how the story comes from the comics but with clever changes. Puchko praises the cast, particularly "Moriarty brings a nuance to her performance that refuses to let Starlight experience like a two-dimensional dryad. She's not naïve. She's hopeful. And she'southward a fighter.
The Boys
makes all of that clear in curt order." She concludes: "The Boys
could still exist a thrilling ride as it subverts the expectations of the family unit-friendly genre, with dark twists and unapologetically graphic scenes of sex and violence. The premiere ep has a lot of heavy lifting to do in exposition, however Kripke works in some stunner moments, jolts of fun, and stellar activeness sequences."^[lxx]

Liz Shannon Miller of
The A.V. Society
wrote: "Karl Urban proves to be a thoroughly committed performer as Baton Butcher, whose dedication to taking downward "supes" of class has a personal edge, but then once again, when you see what men similar the blatantly fake and evil Homelander (Antony Starr) are getting upwardly to information technology makes sense that he's devoted his life to taking downwardly the cause."^[71]
Matthew Dessem from
Slate
commented: "The Boys
is an proficient deconstruction of superhero stories, with an appropriately wintery view of institutional power, be it corporate, governmental, religious, or caped."^[72]
Andrew Wyatt from
Picture palace St. Louis
praised the series for its humor and themes by writing: "Yep, it's contemptuous and ultra-violent, but what distinguishes 'The Boys' is its sincere fascination with its characters' anxieties, compulsions, and human being failings."^[73]
Meagan Navarro of
Bloody Disgusting
praised the series for its entertaining story, scoring 4.five of a five and wrote: "Not a frame is spared in crafting this nuanced and darkly humorous universe drenched in blood and violence. All eight episodes are expertly crafted and constructed to tell i cohesive story that will make you gasp, guffaw, and cheer in equal measure out."^[74]
Matthew Gilbert from
The Boston Earth
wrote: "The premise of the Amazon black one-act is never not fun, and the more than we acquire about this bizarro world, as the supes go on the late-night talk shows and stage squad-upward photo ops on various crimes, the better. ... The cast is fine, particularly Shue, who is icily constructive; Quaid, whose neurotic simply brave fumblings are endearing; and Urban, who is Hughie's gonzo guide. But the existent star of “The Boys” is the state of affairs itself."^[75]

Ben Travers from
IndieWire
gave the show a "B". He commented that "Given the top-notch special effects and sharp writing at the core of “The Boys,” there are notwithstanding loads of potential within this well-realized universe. Permit's just hope this ending really did relieve the true cat."^[76]
Mike Hale from
The New York Times
praised the series for its deviation from the traditional superhero shows including the ones produced by Netflix stating: "The Boys, meanwhile, is offer the kind of smart, easygoing pleasure that nigh of the Marvel Netflix shows, its closest analogues, didn't quite reach."^[77]
Daniel D'Addario from
Variety
recognized the showtime episode for the potential, though criticized its tone past writing: "All viewers at Tribeca had to go on was a kickoff episode, and “The Boys” could become whatsoever number of things as information technology rolls on. But the tone information technology struck in its offset outing was a dully familiar one — the sense that to transgress, alone, is enough. If this show is to actually satirize the wide-open target of superhero entertainments, it'll need to detect a second gear, and chop-chop."^[78]
Vinnie Mancuso from
Collider
appreciated the show social commentary themes and scoring the unabridged flavour 5 out of 5 stars: "Like Alan Moore'south
Watchmen
in the late-80s,
The Boys
TV series has the chance to exist the superhero deconstruction of our time. Less a peek behind the curtain, and more a seedy glimpse backside the social media likes and box office numbers, a story that manages to be heartbreakingly relevant while still finding fourth dimension to have Karl Urban kill a room full of goons with a super-powered baby."^[79]

Audience viewership

[edit]

In October 2019, Nielsen appear it had begun tracking viewership of Amazon Prime programs. It said
The Boys
had attracted eightmillion full viewers in its first 10 days of release, making information technology one of the most successful original programs on Amazon Prime.^{[eighty]
[81]}

Accolades

[edit]

Wade Barnett, David Barbee, Mason Kopeikin, Brian Dunlop, Ryan Briley, Chris Newlin, Christopher Brooks, Joseph T. Sabella and Jesi Ruppel was nominated for their work on "The Name of the Game" for the Outstanding Sound Editing for a One-act or Drama Serial (Ane-Hour) award at the 2020 Primetime Artistic Arts Emmy Awards.^[82]

References

[edit]

External links

[edit]

• 
  Official website
  
• The Boys
  at IMDb